Heart. Papers. Border. is in Steam Greenlight

One of the devs, @sarienn, describes her game, Heart. Papers. Border., as a "optimistic strategy game about travelling, freedom & changing the world." It's pretty, colourful, has a catchy tune and it is a nice calming, traveling, 'let's see the country one border at a time' game. At this time in our world we need games that bring people together.

Wow thank you so much for mentioning Heart. Papers. Border.! Indeed, Greenlight is very very slow so every single vote is much appreciated.

Heart. Papers. Border. is a project that is made by two people, myself and my husband, with the help of an artist and two musician friends. We aim to have all the core mechanics of the game ready by this summer, and then we also hope to distribute it as widely as possible. However we did not think we must be on Greenlight so soon, but we posted the game as soon as we heard that Valve plans to replace Greenlight with a paid, no barrier submission process.

We will definitely try to be on GOG too. We also consider itch.io and humble bundle, which allows a widget directly on our website. But it seems that its kinda mandatory to be on Steam as well, as a PC game. That is why we really hope we will manage to get greenlit )and it still goes terribly slow). We also want to have a mobile/ iOS/ Android version.

Welcome to the forum, Sarienn. It's always a honour to have a game developer come into the forum. Keep this thread in mind and you can use it to post updates as you work on the game.

Have to agree with Lady Gray about your game and the present state of things in the real world. Also, about having a DRM free release would really be nice. Since I am working on being Microsoft Free by 2020, the Linux build in the future makes me very excited.

I got the build and I am going to try to play around with it this evening if I have time.

Just because you are a Babylon 5 fan. "Neech sach schnek, slem-ba. I am your friend, in peace." - Delenn.

I would like to be as transparent as possible with Heart. Papers. Border. but a lot of game developers told me that sometimes sharing a work in progress version can be detrimental to future success - because people will always judge only based on the first thing they see.

I am not sure if I believe that. There are multiple games that my husband and I have followed and supported since early alpha and it is quite a nice feeling to see a game grow into something truly worth playing.

But I am curious to know other opinions.

What do you think?

PS: Delenn was an awesome character. You made me want to watch B5 again :)

I'd say that, in the main, it's a serious mistake to release premature work into the wild.

You'll have trouble with people not understanding that it's a "work in progress". You'll also have trouble with people not seeing any progress in the "work in progress" because a lot of the work isn't readily visible (it's much worse that constantly seeing the "slow men working" signs along the highway for years on end because there, on rare occasions, you actually see some work). You'll also have trouble incorporating feedback. Too much feedback and you can't get any work done for all the bug fixes, and the wrong feedback can lead you to abandon your objective for a new plan that you'll change with the next batch of feedback, and your project will ultimately wither and die on the vine.

All of the above problems are solvable but you have to put plans in place to deal with them from the start and you have to commit to a substantial time allotment to interact with the alpha base. If you do it correctly, the alpha and beta releases will go a long way to generating a loyal user base. If done incorrectly, you won't have a user base.

You need to demonstrate that you're responsive to the testers but, at the same time, you have to stay on course with the work. You also have to guard against some third party turning your work into their work.

Chris - Thank you so much for your detailed response. I really do want to provide access to the pre-alpha but in a proper way, and we are just a team of 2, and one of us has a full time job. So maybe it is wiser to sleep on this one a bit more :)

Last night we also passed Greenlight - I wanted to say THANK YOU so very much for your support! :)

Hey everyone! We are Making the Game :) We know we do not have the best of presence online, so I am working right now at updating our website. If you have any wishes or tips, I would love to heart them! This is how our current website looks now: http://www.heartpapersborder.com

Meanwhile, I wrote a bit more about our experience on Greenlight, because I know a lot of the devs still in the process are feeling exactly like I did a few days ago and I wanna help. Which is why I urge you to please go through your Greenlight queues if you have a spare moment. There are so many projects published on greenlight, that every single visit and vote counts.

Delenn told me about your game last week and I've already voted for it. I do hope it's successful as it is a game I will be buying when it's ready. If you need any testers I would be happy to help. I don't expect a free game either. I like to support developers by buying their games (check my Steam profile HERE, you'll see I buy a lot of games, but I also like to help elsewhere where possible.

I have done a lot of beta testing in the past, especially after I was forced into early retirement after a pretty bad car accident which left me disabled (I was hit by a speeding car while cycling to work, then sent home with no treatment, despite having four broken vertebrae and a serious head injury, i lost almost 4 inches in height and have memory problems due to the head injury, but i love gaming). Games have helped me get through the worst of it and I now use them as distraction therapy to block out the chronic pain.

I did a lot of beta testing for Alawar games several years ago when they had a dedicated team of beta testers, but that was stopped for some reason. I've also tested games for Dejobaan games (was involved in the pre alpha and alpha testing of one of their early games AaAAaaAaa: A Reckless Disregard for Gravity and one of their later games Drunken Robot Pornography, plus I beta tested 2DBoys excellent puzzle platformer Worlds of Goo. I've also tested for a couple of the big AAA developers Codemasters and EA games closed beta testing and several open beta tests for developers such as Bethesda i.e. The Elder Scrolls Online and did a lot of testing for modders of games such as Battlefield 2 and Crysis. I've taken a break from testing for the past couple of years (partly because I spent more time testing than playing my purchased games) that is until earlier this week (again thanks to Delenn), who recommended another game called Saturated Dreamers, which I've just signed on to Beta Test. If you want more testers I would be happy to help. I always test thoroughly, and do not just do this to be the first to play, or to get the game free. I document any bugs or glitches methodically that I come across and will include screen captures and video captures if required of any glitches and bugs that I think will help. I can either send reports via email, or post on your web site, and even chat about them via my team speak server or via Skype if you wish to.

I've voted for almost 900 items since Greenlight was instigated.

regards

Whiterabbit

p.s.

I showed Star Stable to my daughter, she loved it. I also read your post that you linked to above. I though it was well written and made me think a little more about voting more often. I used to vote regularly, but often only bother if I've purchased a bundle of games with some in Greenlight, so I'll go vote for them and whatever is in the same que. I'm going to try and make a point of visiting at least once a day even for a few moments. The votes would soon pile up, even if I only went through one que a day. :)

Spare moments? Since I retired, I don't have many spare moments..LOL I enjoyed reading your perspective of Greenlight. That was really interesting. Guess I am gonna have to find some moments to check out some games out. That Star Stable is awesome looking. I used to ride in my younger years. In fact, I skipped school to ride all day.

@That Wrascally Wabbit:

I've taken a break from testing for the past couple of years (partly because I spent more time testing than playing my purchased games) that is until earlier this week (again thanks to Delenn), who recommended another game called Saturated Dreamers, which I've just signed on to Beta Test

Thank you, Whiterabbit and Delenn! I sincerely hope that more and more games that you like get done, because reading your posts and your experiences is wonderful (even though I am so sorry to hear about accidents and ill health :( )

Thank you for your excellent offer to test Heart. Papers. Border. Now that we got greenlit, we have access to our Steam partner options and we can have beta branches in Steam. We are looking into how to use the Steam api now.

Whiterabbit, I believe you deserve the games you test for free. Its a service, and a bug free, well tested game is a very valuable thing to have. Both you and Delenn will get beta access keys when we learn how to do that.

I'll let my friends at Star Stable know you like their game, too :) They are actually on the market for a long time, but not on Steam. They have a very dedicated fan base; in Sweden, there is a lot of horse riding and a lot of people have their own horses (and love them and care for them very much)

And I will definitely check out Saturated Dreamers!I would have voted for it but hey! It is already greenlit!